and p.15; and our latest wellbeing tips on p.20

Dedicated nurse receives prestigious award

A dedicated nurse has been awarded a prestigious High Sheriff’s Award in recognition of the valuable contribution she has made to our hospital and patients living with dementia.

The High Sheriff's Awards are designed to reward the volunteers, charities, organisations and community groups in Essex who devote their time and energy to improve the communities in which they live and work.

Caroline Ashton-Gough, dementia clinical nurse specialist, said: “I was honoured to attend the Harlow Council annual dinner, representing PAHT as one of the Chair of Harlow Council’s chosen charities of the year.

“To my surprise, I received a High Sheriff’s Award in recognition for the care that we provide for our patients living with dementia and helping to improve their quality of life. “Thank you to Harlow Council and the High Sheriff’s team for this award, it means so much. We look forward to working together to further improve the experience of our patients.”

Councillor Clive Souter, chair of Harlow Council, said: “I’m so proud to see Caroline recognised for the extremely valuable work in providing high quality care and experiences for people living with dementia.

“We will continue to support fundraising efforts for dementia care at PAHT until the end of my term in May, to help raise much-needed funding for this important work.”

Furry friends bring smiles and joy to patients at local hospital

We are working in partnership with Pets as Therapy, a national charity that helps to enhance the health and wellbeing of thousands of patients across the UK.

The charity strive to ensure that everyone, no matter their circumstances, has access to the companionship of an animal. Their friendly pets visit hospitals, care homes, hospices and schools.

Alison Lawrence, deputy voluntary services manager, said: “We are delighted to welcome Pets as Therapy to the hospital to help make a difference for our patients.

“To begin with, our furry fourlegged visitors are spending time with our patients living with dementia.

“The therapeutic value of human and animal interaction is now well recognised and research suggests that introducing a companion animal into a hospital can result in patients feeling more at ease, communicative and more motivated to engage.”

Sharon McNally, director of nursing, midwifery and allied health professionals, said: “A huge thank you to Pets as Therapy and their hard working volunteers who generously give up their spare time to help others.

“We know that the animals will be extremely beneficial for our patients living with dementia, to help stimulate their memory, improve communication, “Although it is tempting to pet the animals, infection control remains our absolute priority and so we ask that our staff and other patients refrain from stroking the dogs.”

Cyber security team highly commended for excellence

The cyber security team have been highly commended in the Cyber Team of the Year category for the NHS Digital Cyber Associates Network Awards.

The new awards ceremony, hosted by NHS Digital, is an opportunity to recognise and shine a light on the innovation and expertise involved with increasing cyber security and resilience to protect patient and staff data across the NHS.

The team have worked hard to test, review and introduce a number of technical solutions to enhance cyber security at the hospital within a short time frame; the team have also hosted a series of staff training sessions to highlight potential cyber security risks that could arise and explain best practice on how to manage them. Jeff Wood, deputy director of ICT, said: “I am extremely proud that the team have been recognised for their dedication and fantastic efforts.

“They continuously strive to enhance our cyber security services and put our patients and people at the heart of everything that they do. knowledge and how people can remain safe at home and within the workplace."

“Going forward, the team plan to host regular cyber security sessions with technical experts to see how cyber security can be further improved and create a cyber-security online booklet to increase cyber security

Dying Matters Awareness Week

Dying Matters Awareness Week, taking place this week (2-6 May), is a moment to encourage people to start conversations about dying, in whatever way, shape or form that works for them.

The aim of the week is to help people to talk about dying and grief, to plan for the end of life and ensure that plans are in place to deliver on those wishes.

In support of the awareness week, our specialist palliative and end of life care team has arranged a series of InTouch briefings that will help to guide your conversations and raise awareness of why dying matters. This includes:

• Our Butterfly Volunteers • Chaplaincy support – death café • PEACE documentation • Patients living with dementia • End of life care

All staff diary invites have been issued for the briefings and activities, please accept the diary invite as confirmation of your attendance.

The team will also be holding a Why Dying Matters information stand, outside the Alexandra restaurant (location A21) on 5 May between 1-3pm, come along to find out more.

Bowel Cancer Awareness Month

April marked Bowel Cancer Awareness Month, which is an opportunity to raise awareness of the disease.

Bowel cancer is also called colorectal cancer; it affects the large bowel, made up of the colon and rectum.

Most bowel cancers develop from pre-cancerous growths, called polyps.

However, not all polyps develop into cancer. If your doctor finds any polyps, they can remove them to prevent them becoming cancerous.

Know the symptoms of bowel cancer

Knowing the symptoms of bowel cancer could help to save your life. They include:

• Bleeding from your bottom and/or blood in your poo • A persistent and unexplained change in bowel habit • Unexplained weight loss • Extreme tiredness for no obvious reason • A pain or lump in your tummy

Facts about bowel cancer

• Nearly 43,000 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer every year in the UK • More than nine out of ten new cases (94%) are diagnosed in people over the age of 50. • Nearly six out of ten cases (59%) are diagnosed in people aged 70 or over. However, bowel cancer can affect anyone of any age • 1 in 15 men and 1 in 18 women will be diagnosed with bowel cancer during their lifetime

If you have any concerns and for advice, please speak to your GP.

Quality improvement

‘Evidence of a consistent approach to quality improvement is key to ‘good’ and ‘outstanding’ well-led organisations’ - Care Quality Commission

Our quality improvement (QI) methodology and approach to leading change and projects was established in April 2017. Putting ‘quality first’ is the underpinning principal to quality improvement at PAHT and we define quality improvement ‘as working together in partnership to make the sustainable changes that will lead to excellence for our patients, people, performance, places and pounds’.

In April 2022 the Quality Project Management Office (PMO) merged into PAHT’s PMO. This is to further enhance the organisation's commitment to improving quality and clinical effectiveness across PAHT.

The PMO team will advise, guide and coach teams in the development of project plans in accordance with our leading change and leading projects methodology. The PMO team are consistently working with governance leads, clinical leads and the executive team to ensure all risks and issues are comprehensively documented. This is to enable us to look at new ways of working and to implement the changes needed to ensure our patients are receiving the best care possible.

Please note there will be no changes to the functionality of the Quality PMO’s work within the organisation. This will merely be carried out under the PMO team who are working very closely with the Quality First team.

One of the signs of quality improvement being embedded across an organisation is the ‘presence of a central team that leads the provider’s quality improvement approach’ (Care Quality Commission). This is to ensure that best practice and lessons learnt are shared effectively across teams and coordination/progress is tracked centrally. Please contact paht.pmo@nhs.net for more information.

The PMO team is currently working with all areas of the organisation on the implementation of PM3. PM3 is a project management tool to assist us in achieving our strategic priorities over the next decade and will support all divisions in documenting their projects and running essential reports and more.

Please note that all projects within the organisation are required to be put into PM3 going forward. The PMO team is facilitating training sessions over the coming weeks to ensure all colleagues are familiar with the functionality of the system. For training date availability, or to book onto a session, please contact paht. pmo@nhs.net and a member of the team will respond as soon as possible.